Target Forward | Our Sustainability Strategy

Our Goals

By 2030, Target aims to be the market leader for creating and curating inclusive, sustainable brands and experiences.

 

Initial milestone:

By 2030, Target intends for the leading raw materials (e.g., forest products, cotton and more) that go into our owned brand products to be 100% recycled, regenerative or sustainably sourced.

Foundations we’ve laid:

By 2025, Target plans for 100% of our owned brands, in addition to our owned brand limited-edition and brand partnerships, to adhere to Target’s already established sustainability standards.

Foundations we’ve laid:

In several of our owned brands, including Everspring, Universal Thread, Spritz and Cat & Jack, we are already implementing our Chemicals Policy and Forest Products Policy.

By 2025, Target plans for 100% of owned brand suppliers to have policies and programs to advance gender equity.

Focus areas of these policies and programs include:

• Equitable systems for hiring and advancement.
• Financial security for their workers.
• Effective anonymous channels for incident reporting.
• Access to gender-responsive health information and services for their workers.

Foundations we’ve laid:

• Continued investment in CARE’s Dignified Work Initiative.
• Became a member in 2022 of the Better Than Cash Alliance to support our commitment that all owned brand suppliers pay workers digitally by 2025. 
• In 2022, we also launched our Just and Equitable Supply Chain requirements to further our progress in building a responsible global supply chain.

By 2040, Target plans for 100% of our owned brand products to be designed for a circular future.

Our teams will continue designing to eliminate waste — using materials that are regenerative, recycled or sourced sustainably — to create products that are more durable, easily repaired or recyclable.

 

Initial milestone:

By 2025, Target aims to offer two circular owned brands.

Foundations we’ve laid:

• Identified Universal Thread and Everspring as our first two owned brands that will be designed for circularity² by 2025.
• Trained more than 3,000 team members and 1,000 vendor employees in our circular design principles since 2018.
• We also launched Target’s Circular Design Guide, a web-based training hub for team members to learn about circular design, and completed testing for our Circular Design Calculator enabling team members to calculate key factors when choosing materials.

By 2025, Target intends to reduce annual total virgin plastic in our owned brand packaging by 20% from a 2020 baseline.

 

Initial milestone:

By 2025, Target intends to have 100% of our owned brand plastic packaging be recyclable, compostable or reusable.

Foundations we’ve laid:

• We are signatories to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and the U.S. Plastics Pact.
• Launched Target Zero, a curated collection with thousands of products and/or packaging designed to be refillable, reusable or compostable; concentrated; made from recycled content or made from materials that reduce the use of virgin plastic.

By 2040, Target commits to net zero greenhouse gas emissions³ across our enterprise (scopes 1, 2 and 3).

• By 2023, 80% of Target’s suppliers by spend (covering all purchased goods and services) will set science-based scope 1 and scope 2 targets.
• By 2025, Target commits to engage suppliers to prioritize renewable energy and collaborate on solutions that protect, sustain and restore nature.
• By 2025, Target commits to source 60% of our electricity from renewable sources for our operations.
• By 2030, Target commits to source 100% of our electricity from renewable sources for our operations.
• By 2030, Target commits to achieve 50% absolute reduction in operations emissions (scopes 1 and 2) from a 2017 base year.
• By 2030, Target commits to achieve 30% absolute reduction in supply chain emissions (scope 3) covering retail purchased goods and services from a 2017 base year.

Foundations we’ve laid:

By 2030, Target plans to achieve zero waste⁴ to landfill in U.S. operations.

Foundations we’ve laid:

• In 2022, we diverted 83% of operational waste and 59% of construction waste from landfill.
• Target received our first official zero waste certified location designation from the TRUE Certification (Zero Waste) for our Hawaii Flow Center in 2022.

Target aims to drive equitable opportunities and outcomes for advancement and engagement by continuing to be a leader in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Foundations we’ve laid:

Target aims to create equity through benefit access and affordability to enhance total well-being.

Target aims to empower team members to create the employment experience of their choice through personalized scheduling.

Foundations we’ve laid:

• In 2022, announced a new starting wage range from $15 to $24 per hour.

• Expanded access to comprehensive health benefits for hourly team members working a minimum average of 25 hours/week. 

• In 2021, launched a new debt-free education assistance benefit, giving our U.S.-based team members access to free undergraduate and associates degrees, certificates, bootcamp programs, textbooks, course fees and more with no out-of-pocket costs required. 

• Improved access to more stable schedules and transparency around scheduling policies to accommodate team members’ desired hours, including a new mobile scheduling app that allows team members to conveniently add or swap shifts. 

By 2030, engage and elevate community voices as we seek to build and implement community-driven solutions.

 

Initial milestone:

By 2025, Target and Target Foundation plan to evolve our philanthropic practices and place-based solutions to invite participation from communities.

Foundations we’ve laid:

• Target team members have impacted thousands of local communities through listening and showing up in relevant ways, volunteering nearly 900,000 hours and contributing millions of dollars to charitable causes in 2022.  
• In 2021, we announced a $100 million investment through 2025 to help fuel economic prosperity in Black communities across the country. We’re doing so by supporting local, Black-led organizations to ensure that resources are specifically designed for the communities they serve. This investment will support students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), expand our funding of Black-led nonprofits, and sponsor programs that elevate Black stories and voices. With this investment, Target is a founding supporter of the PENSOLE Lewis College of Business and Design, which aims to be the nation’s first reopened historically Black college and the first historically Black college to focus on design.
• In 2021, we introduced our Target Scholars Program. In partnership with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the program provides 1,000 first-year students from HBCUs with $5,000 scholarships and access to mentoring, internship and networking opportunities. We enhanced support for the program in 2022 with scholarship extensions and new resources including for financial hardships. 

We’ll continue to evolve and add to this list of milestones as we work to achieve our vision of a more equitable and regenerative future for all. And as always, we’ll provide ongoing updates on our progress, including our annual reporting on sustainability and governance.

^{2 Designing products in a way that designs out waste and keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible.} 

^{3 Net zero, as defined, is achieved when a company’s scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are reduced to a level that is consistent with a 1.5°C pathway, and any residual emissions are removed from the atmosphere through either nature-based or technological carbon removal solutions (e.g., forestry, regenerative agriculture, carbon capture technology), by no later than 2050, in alignment with the Paris Agreement. Target has committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions across our enterprise, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.} 

^{4 The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse and recovery of products, packaging and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water or air that threaten the environment or human health, as established by the Zero Waste International Alliance. The threshold to be considered “Zero Waste” is normally set at a minimum of 90% diversion rate.}